19 November 2014, Hilton Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

The annual dialogue with international sounding board

After a very successful inaugural meeting, The Asian Banker, in conjunction with leading heads of risk and compliance in the GCC banking community, is once again convening an international advisory board to assist in thinking through the priorities in building banking resilience and managing the perception of the region’s financial institutions by the international community.

It is critical to have a region wide industry-led process to identify and share new knowledge on banking resilience, as well as serve as an early warning system on risks which are potentially widespread and carry systemic implications. Such risks may include, for example, a widespread incidence on concentration risk on the credit or funding side, mispricing of risk, global counterparty risk due to interconnectedness of markets, and the potential for contagion across markets and regions.

In addition, the GCC banking community has to proactively form its own unique industry response to growing demands brought on by sweeping global banking reforms. It also needs to develop an effective communication capability to persuasively inform the international financial community of the unique character of the financial services sector in this part of the world. For example, GCC banks tend to be more sophisticated and robust than is commonly perceived by international analysts and this has reputational repercussions that need to be addressed.

The private forum on 19 November 2014 will help to formulate a framework to respond to issues faced by the Middle Eastern financial services industry, which include:

• Understanding how to respond to changing regulations in the 'Too Big to Ignore' jurisdictions
• Devising a communication format that could bridge the perception gap between reality and how analysts view the region's financial institutions
• Ensuring that compliance commitments of GCC institutions are also business friendly
• Setting the framework to meet the demands of an increasingly challenging environment 

The Asian Banker which is organizing this meeting, will be providing the data and research support for the discussions. In essence, the following data will be circulated for the discussions:

• Balance sheet position, especially on key liquidity ratios
• Governance structure and risk infrastructure
• Risk management achievements and business impact weighted against competitive conditions
• Funding and monitoring capabilities

Financial crises happen when financial institutions are vulnerable to widespread underestimation of risks, misallocate resources in balancing risk and compliance needs, and when they are unable to manage public perception and maintain confidence. This annual meeting serves as a platform for leading GCC risk and compliance heads to mitigate those threats and make a definitive contribution to shaping the banking landscape for their region.